tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63082331747300059222024-02-07T06:00:34.226+00:00The Lead Generation BlogProfessional lead generation expert Wayne Davies provides tips, tricks, news and opinion about every aspect of Internet marketing, lead generation, social media marketing, SEO, pay per click advertising, article marketing and copy writing.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-53508621595636678362011-12-08T07:00:00.002+00:002011-12-08T07:03:47.264+00:00Exclusive! The very latest iPad 3 rumours…These <a href="http://megaresponse.com/latest-ipad-3-rumours/400/#.TuBgjg5QQFA.blogger">iPad 3 rumours</a> are so hot that even Apple doesn't know about the exclusive features touted to be going into the next iPad.<br />
<br />
Check out this humourous take on fanboy obsession and Tech Blog speculative frenzy.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-8044173837207315372011-10-22T10:27:00.010+01:002011-10-22T10:34:13.960+01:00A New Way to Find New Clients<div style="cont_container"><div class="separator" style="position:relative;top:5px;float:right;margin:0px 0px 0px 15px;width:165px;"><img border="0" width="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ1mXgq_dwR7q9dgGd-YpL8fiks2HULZnIfz1CUFDtf7fnUAQbE8JvIrHLm70f7U2HEZhyokbV7CmuL8zxakCi9QgE3iqaAgvtYemQNJr3N-13gNig0tmBsqjgngKM6uOFnBvpWb0mO_go/s400/wdavies.jpg" alt="Wayne Davies" title="ReferralKey Member Wayne Davies" /></div><div style="float:left;text-align:justify;width:240px;">I recently joined ReferralKey. It's a wonderful way to find new clients through referral marketing.<br />
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I'm especially impressed with its focus on giving and receiving referrals. The system is designed from the ground up to support business networking. In my view, this makes it vastly superior to LinkedIn as a way to meet business owners and network.<br />
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You can take advantage of all the networking tools ReferralKey offers free of charge. There is no 'pro' upgrade. This is about referral marketing plain and simple.<br />
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<a href="https://www.referralkey.com/accept.php?i=0O17576O852b21" target="_blank">Sign up to ReferralKey</a>. Once you're a member, send me a message within the system and I'll explain how to make it work for you.</div><div style="clear:both;"></div></div>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-16270177645866641872011-10-03T19:06:00.017+01:002011-10-03T22:14:19.567+01:00Filtering out time-wasters and other non-leads (lead generation process)<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRW7vSIvClMxM15U1U2Bp4EPYDiW1n9jQIjEtmxFuvFxNKkvV9Fnt_utOIWcJIZWvZr4pmV_XBaQWTU-nYXcJhRC5PBtAZW_VKlLIK-g7xYFOwmGXt2BKTkYUHxAJRMoT8m205fSNMs7M/s1600/blog.jpg" style="position:relative;top:6px;float:left;margin:0px 15px 5px 0px;" />Which of the following statements is true?<br />
<ol style="margin-left:190px;"><li>The Internet is a wonderful way to generate leads</li>
<li>The Internet is a terrible way to generate leads</li>
</ol>Actually, they're both true. As soon as you implement lead generation on a website you'll find you get good leads and non-leads.<br />
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A good lead is a person with a genuine interest in your product or service.<br />
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A non-lead is a person with a genuine interest in selling his/her product or service to you. In other words, a non-lead is a leech looking to free-load off the back of your own marketing efforts.<br />
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The trick is to implement a lead generation system that eliminates non-leads up-front so you don't waste your time dealing with him/her. Here's how it's done...<br />
<ul><li>Introduce extra steps to your lead generation process</li>
<li>Fully automate your lead generation process</li>
</ul><b>Introduce Extra Steps</b><br />
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A non-lead hoping to turn you into a lead has the same problem you do – a finite amount of time. S/he will only jump through so many hoops before s/he starts looking for easier targets.<br />
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Introducing extra steps to your own lead generation process has a non-lead expend more effort without requiring any extra work on your part (once the changes are in place). This has the flow-on effect of ensuring that only the best leads reach you because people who are only mildly interested (i.e. outside the target market) will also be eliminated by the process.<br />
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<b>Automate Lead Generation</b><br />
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Every part of your lead generation process should be automated. The time you save through automation quickly pays for itself – especially if you have a multi-step lead process designed to eliminate non-leads and those outside the target market.<br />
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Consider that most online lead generation follows this format...<br />
<ul><li>Offer a prospect information the target market wants</li>
<li>Asks the prospect to enter his/her email address and click a button</li>
<li>Verify the email address</li>
<li>Send the information</li>
</ul>A non-lead will happily fill out the form, receive the verification email and use the sending address to spam you forever more.<br />
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You can prevent this by sending the verification email from an email account set to automatically delete any email received to it. The problem with this approach is you'll miss enquiries from genuine prospects. Given this is a lead generation effort, do you really want to miss genuine enquiries?<br />
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A question worth asking yourself is why you're using email at this point anyway? Especially when you consider the following...<br />
<ul><li>Most free information sent in this manner is never read (i.e. they lost interest between requesting and receiving the information)</li>
<li>Some people won't receive the verification email and will either attempt to contact you for help (i.e. take up a lot of your time), or will simply forget all about it (i.e. a wasted opportunity)</li>
</ul>What if you displayed the information immediately? In other words a teaser page offers free information and clicking a 'Show me' button on that page reveals the promised information immediately.<br />
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With this approach everybody gets to see the promised information with no delivery failures. Even better – more people will read or watch it because there is no delay.<br />
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Of course the revealed information is merely the second step in the process. The information must deliver value in and of itself. But it has a more important job to do from your perspective. It must culminate in a further call to action.<br />
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This further call to action should promise a logical next step. And that next step has to be something a genuine prospect can't resist. You should then offer to deliver this next step for some token sum of money (e.g. $3.25).<br />
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Why charge for this next step? Because it will eliminate most non-leads. And it forces a genuine prospect to consider whether the degree of his/her interest at this point in time. If s/he is very interested that person will pay a token sum and take the next step.<br />
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As you'd expect, this approach results in fewer leads. The leads you get will be of much higher quality and you'll have far less running around to do.<br />
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A smart lead generator will introduce a negative option at this point. A negative option is an alternative for people unwilling to pay money for the next step. For example, you might offer a free subscription to your email newsletter.<br />
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Most of the people who take this option are in your target market and it's worth keeping in touch with them. While they're not ready to commit immediately, each time they receive your newsletter you get another chance to convert.<br />
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Here's an example of how this type of a multi-step process might work...<br />
<blockquote>Jane is a personal trainer looking for people to join her kettlebell class. She starts with an ad in Google AdWords that offers to help people lose 4 kilograms in 4 weeks.<br />
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That ad links to a teaser page that explains how a 4-week kettlebell program and diet will ensure a person loses 4 kilograms in 4 weeks. The teaser page ends by offering her 4-week programme for free. All the user has to do is click the 'Lose 4 Kilos Now' button.<br />
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Anyone that clicks this button gets the programme immediately. Jane's programme includes an online video, exercise photos, a 4-week workout plan, recipes and explanatory text. The explanatory text makes several points...<br />
<ul><li>A medical assessment is essential before starting an exercise programme</li>
<li>The diet information is general. More effective results can be had with a personalised diet plan</li>
<li>The kettlebell exercises are general. A more effective programme can be had by attending a class</li>
<li>Any diet and exercise programme works best when done as part of a group (mutual support, have fun, enjoy each other's company)</li>
</ul>These points culminate in an opportunity to make a clear offer – for just $3.25 Jane will allow the prospect to attend her kettlebell class. The prospect will receive a medical and fitness assessment, diet recommendations based on his/her medical and fitness needs, and the opportunity to experience the kettlebell class first hand</blockquote>This is a pretty good deal - isn't it? Most people in the target market are likely to take up the offer. From Jane's perspective, she gets a whole lot more than a name and an email address. Jane gets to meet the prospect face-to-face. And the prospect gets to meet her and see how good she is first hand.<br />
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The approach also serves to enhance Jane's credibility. This reduces the perceived risk in the mind of prospect by removing substantial doubt.<br />
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It's important to understand why a token payment is required. Asking the prospect to hand over money (e.g. via PayPal) forces him/her to decide whether or not s/he is serious about the product or service on offer. As a result, any leads that result from this process are considerably more likely to go ahead and buy.<br />
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If my example doesn't apply directly to your situation (e.g. you're not selling an exercise class) you'll have to adapt the approach to meet your own needs.<br />
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You're welcome to explain your particular marketing situation via a comment, and ask me for ideas on how you might adapt the above to suit your own multi-step process.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-58114055810564861082011-10-03T09:22:00.000+01:002011-10-03T09:22:47.583+01:00Are men worth the effort?Hmmm...not sure about this (being a man and all), but there's a poll out there that asks women to vote on whether or not we men are worth the effort.<br />
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Of course it's all for a laugh, so head on over and <a href="http://venusunleashed.co.uk/are-men-worth-the-effort/372/" target="_blank">cast your vote</a>.<br />
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Naturally I voted in favour of the motion. Of course we're worth the effort!Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-16693089501116063482011-01-28T16:19:00.001+00:002011-01-28T16:20:25.511+00:00Lead Generation - Marketing's Poor CousinLead Generation has somehow been denigrated to the ranks of marketing's poor cousin. Agencies (even specialist Direct Agencies) seem to have have little respect for lead generation these days.<br />
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In my more cynical moments, I do sometimes wonder whether this is because lead generation is so inconveniently <i>measurable.</i><br />
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The client immediately knows whether or not a lead generation campaign has worked. There are no convenient measures (e.g. so-called 'buzz') to hide behind. The campaign is either generating leads, or it's not.<br />
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Of course, I think the real reason why professional marketers seems uninterested in lead generation these days has more to do with what's sexy. And right now, marketing people are in love with social media.<br />
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Forgive for me being blunt. Social media is a wonderful thing. But from a business perspective, it's completely and utterly pointless if it's not contributing to the bottom line.<br />
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I don't care how much 'buzz' I'm generating on social media. I'm interested in...<br />
<ul><li>The number of business enquiries I'm getting from the web</li>
<li>The nature of those enquiries</li>
<li>The quality of those enquiries</li>
</ul>My focus is not blinkered. I'm not obsessed with lead generation to the exclusion of anything else. I'm merely concerned that marketing do what it's meant to do. And that's to generate income for the business.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Right now, I don't think that's the main focus of professional marketing people. And that's why the rest of the world regards us as charlatans</div>.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-5799073832890006442010-12-09T15:27:00.001+00:002010-12-09T15:29:37.536+00:00What's your official sex-toy rating?Nothing goes viral like sex, and it's hard to find a better example of viral marketing than <a href="http://ell.agazze.com/" target="_blank">this fun quiz</a> about sex toys. Enjoy (but also pay attention to the way this works from a marketing perspective).Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-11277755534529854372010-11-12T12:04:00.007+00:002010-11-12T12:27:00.790+00:00Twitter is a complete and utter waste of time for most businessesTwitter is a medium best suited to facilitate the sharing of inanity. Despite this, businesses have jumped on the medium and are trying to find ways to make use of it for marketing purposes.<br />
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Why are they doing this? Because Twitter is popular, and seen as a bandwagon on which to jump. Such knee-jerk thinking betrays a lack of strategic thinking within the business. The plain fact is, there is no point being on Twitter unless the company's marketing strategy provides a specific purpose for being there.<br />
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Having said that, let's examine a common use of Twitter by business. It's often seen as an ideal notification medium. And in fact Twitter's primary purpose is to notify other people about what the Tweeter is up to.<br />
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Popular Twitter celebrities such as Stephen Fry (1.9 million followers) use the medium for (I suspect) personal amusement. This is why you'll find gems on his Twitter page like this one: <i>"Wet and windy. Then I looked out of the window and saw that the weather is too."</i><br />
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The difficulty for business is to translate the success Stephen Fry has had on a personal level, into a viable business strategy. It's simply not useful for a business owner to tweet about his/her epic boil lancing session. The most common Twitter strategy is...<br />
<ul><li>Gain as many followers as possible (usually with minimal thought given to who those followers are, why they're interested, and how to convert apparent interest into profit)</li>
<li>Tell those followers about every new blog article, marketing initiative, <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/shindig" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">shindig</a>, and product the company launches</li>
</ul>There are 3 inherent problems with this approach...<br />
<ol><li>Most of the 'news' isn't inherently interesting outside the company because it's self-serving and self-agrandising (yawn)</li>
<li>The followers are almost always competitors or free-loaders rather than actual viable customers</li>
<li>The nature of the content and its followers makes it unlikely a tweet will go viral</li>
</ol>This last point is most crucial, because it provides the key to understanding the real power of Twitter.<br />
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Successful tweets are those that get retweeted by other users. And the challenge for most business owners is to find content that is retweet-worthy.<br />
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Put another way, under what circumstances would <i>you</i> retweet an announcement by Company X that it has just launched Product Y? Here are a few reasons why you might...<br />
<ul><li>The businesses' own followers are inherently interested in product Y. The Apple iPad is an example of a product that was, in and of itself, exciting to a specific group of people</li>
<li>A tweet that offers a very attractive special deal available only to Twitter users who retweet the offer and prove they've done so (naturally the offer must be for something the target market actually wants)</li>
<li>Something so juicy it can't be ignored by those following the business on Twitter, such a link to a YouTube clip of the company chairman running naked down the street while being chased by bears. Sadly, there are very few company chairmen that find themselves in this situation. And even fewer that caught on film</li>
</ul>In all 3 cases a small business will struggle to produce anything that meets these criteria. And if that's the case, the business must ask itself whether or not Twitter is a waste of its time and/or money.<br />
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The plain fact is, most business owners are far more interested in what they're up to than the rest of us. A <a href="http://nwsmiles.co.uk/" target="_blank">dentist</a> may like to think the wider world is interested in his/her new comfy chairs, or the redecorated waiting area. In reality, none of these things are retweet-worthy. Most of us are simply too busy to care. <br />
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Even a business that employs a social media marketing expert to manage it's Twitter presence will struggle to find retweet-worthy content. It's difficult to come up with genuinely compelling ideas. And even harder to have it infect the 'Twittosphere'.<br />
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But even if a business down come up with something retweet-worthy, and it does catch on, the question of its own target market remains.<br />
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Will the business attract genuine prospects in its target market, or merely act as a source of useful information to its competitors, time-wasters (literally) and marketing free-loaders?<br />
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If a business can't attract it's target market, there are far more profitable ways to invest it's marketing budget.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-62110582336615990792010-08-19T18:37:00.014+01:002010-08-19T18:51:52.221+01:00Is professional SEO really worth the money?There are so many resources that teach you how to do your own SEO it's worth asking the question - <i>is professional SEO worth the money?</i><br />
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For example, this <a href="http://diyseoseminar.com/diy-seo.php" target="_blank">SEO training</a> is specifically designed to help non-technical people do their own search engine optimisation (it's superb).<br />
<br />
So why pay hundreds - maybe thousands - to a SEO professional when you can do it yourself for free? As always, the answer comes down to your particular circumstances...<br />
<ul><li><b>Do you have time to do your own SEO?</b><br />
Getting to the top of Google may require months of tedious effort on your part. Is this really the best way to invest your time?</li>
<li><b>What is your time worth to your business?</b><br />
If you're paid well you're almost certainly better off paying a professional to do SEO for you.</li>
<li><b>How quickly do you want to get to the top of Google?</b><br />
A professional can almost certainly get you to the top of Google faster than you. For a start, a pro doesn't have to learn how to do SEO.</li>
<li><b>Can your business stand the 2-3 months it will take to undo a mistake?</b><br />
If you make a mistake that results in Google punishing your site, it can take several months of misery while you attempt to undo it. A professional won't make these types of mistake.</li>
<li><b>Is being at the top of Google likely to be a profitable investment for your business?</b><br />
There's more than one way to get traffic to your site, and sometimes SEO isn't the best way to do it. A professional will tell you if there's a better approach.</li>
<li><b>Are there problems with your site that hold it back in Google?</b><br />
Many web designers have incorrect ideas about what makes a site 'SEO friendly'. Sometimes they do more harm than good, and create problems that must be fixed before a site will rank well in Google.</li>
</ul>These last 2 points are especially important. It entirely possible that getting to the top of Google won't help you achieve your business objectives. If so, an experienced pro will tell you and recommend more viable alternatives.<br />
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This could save you months of effort, and direct your energies toward more profitable activity.<br />
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This alone could be <u><b>worth thousands</b></u> (i.e. far more than the cost of an initial SEO report). Not to mention the opportunity cost to your business.<br />
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As your SEO experience improves over time, so will your ability to spot the sort of problems that stop a site from ranking well in search engines. The thing is, a professional can tell you within minutes if there's an existing problem. And either fix it immediately, or explain how to get it fixed.<br />
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All it takes is a <a href="http://diyseoseminar.com/professional-seo.php" target="_blank">professional SEO report</a>. I'm not talking about a free automated report you find on a website. I mean a report prepared manually by an experienced professional that looks in-depth at your site, likely keywords, internal links, external links, the strength of your competition in Google and all the other factors that go into a SEO strategy.<br />
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This report will save your business a lot of time, money and lost opportunity. Isn't it the logical next step for your business?<br />
<a href="http://diyseoseminar.com/professional-seo.php" target="_blank">Click here now...</a>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-49957324775939455312010-08-15T10:21:00.001+01:002010-08-15T10:22:33.841+01:00Strategic Business NetworkingThis resource on <a href="http://bniwesthampstead.co.uk/28-business-networking-strategies.html">Business Networking London</a> describes 28 different ideas that combine to form a powerful business networking strategy.<br />
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The first page lists all 28 methods and gives a brief description. You can then click through to more detailed information about the idea itself. As I write this, only the first page is posted (the detail pages are not yet in place). But they're not needed to benefit from this information.<br />
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The summary information is enough to understand the principles involved, and I thoroughly recommend it to you. It's a brilliant way to approach business networking, and turn it into a highly profitable source of revenue for your business.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-43966568813386935612010-07-13T08:33:00.009+01:002010-07-13T10:01:30.635+01:00How to Attract the Right People to Your Site - The Web Marketing Process Part 12<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06DURFZoagA9cAAwRFTw9uvUFxroH2aHP_4AnvMs3WGeXXhuGTl-NXhTZcph3lqYHUJTpx7B8x_YdJDfoxtVTYx7q_NgGmqGVmXz8ZmdzdAx8-lOntbQpEFmsuNVCJ1UC-gBbj56DXOIE/s320/wmp-visitors.jpg" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /><br />
This article is part 12 of a series. You'll find <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html">part one here</a>. And <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/05/getting-visitors-web-marketing-process.html">part 11 here</a>.<br />
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Get live updates as each new part is released: <a href="http://twitter.com/seo2leads" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Follow on Twitter</a>.<br />
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Who buys your product or service? As soon as you know the correct answer to this question, you'll find it <i>much</i> easier to attract the right people to your site.<br />
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It pays (literally) to know exactly who you're marketing to, because it makes it easy to find the people you need to promote your product or service to. And finding the right people is half the battle.<br />
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For example, my DIY SEO Seminar teaches people how to do their own Search Engine Optimisation. It's specifically designed to appeal to small business owners that lack the money to pay a professional SEO company.<br />
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Armed with that knowledge, it's relatively easy to find the type of person I need to promote my DIY SEO Seminar to. For example, a lot of small business owners are members of <a href="http://bniwesthampstead.co.uk/" target="_blank">BNI</a>. I am a BNI member, and can visit different BNI groups (i.e. subbing in BNI vernacular). <br />
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Of course, finding your target market is the first part in a 2 part process. You must also have something to offer. And the thing you offer must be compelling.<br />
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Your offer should appeal directly to your target market, and attract them to your site to receive that offer. The medium you use will affect the kind of offer you make. For example, I can offer BNI members a free featured listing in my directory. This provides SEO value, and so appeals to people who are already thinking in terms of realising SEO value.<br />
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In web marketing terms, where the goal is to send targeted people to my website, I might start by writing an article about Search Engine Optimisation. I may then get that article published on a dedicated article site such as Ezine Articles.<br />
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The article will end with my profile, where I make a specific offer to the reader and send him/her to a landing page on my website. We'll look at landing pages in more detail when we get to the "Leads" component of the Web Marketing Process (see <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html">part one</a> for more information).<br />
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My article is about SEO, and will be read by people with an interest in SEO. The article will be designed specifically to appeal to small business owners who need to do their own SEO. It's purpose is to sell the idea that...<br />
<ul><li>Most small business owners can't afford to pay for SEO</li>
<li>SEO isn't difficult - anyone can do it</li>
<li>They can do their own SEO and save thousands of pounds</li>
</ul>The article will be published on an article site that has its own built-in community. That subset of the community interested in SEO will read the article. And a further subset of people are likely to be interested in learning more about SEO. In my profile, I'll construct an offer aimed at these people.<br />
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This sends targeted traffic to my site. It also has the potential to convey SEO Benefit to my site. But this isn't its main purpose. And visitor generation doesn't end with the links in the article. The article is merely a filter designed to weed out unsuitable people (i.e. those outside the target market). To have it do its job, I need to send people to the article itself.<br />
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Why not simply send them directly to my site? Because the article is the filter that weeds out unsuitable people. And because the article prepares the prospective client to buy by...<br />
<ul><li>Selling the idea they can do it themselves</li>
<li>Establishing my SEO expertise</li>
</ul>The article isn't sales copy as such. It must offer genuine value to its target market. It must have utility value in and of itself. By making the article useful to my target market, I ensure they read it all the way through.<br />
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Those that click the link and visit my landing page are now fully qualified prospective clients. And I'm in a good position to convert these visitors into leads.<br />
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As you can see, it's in my interests to send as many people as possible to the article. To achieve this I'll do the following (at the very least)...<br />
<ul><li>Tweet about the article and link to</li>
<li>Ask key people to retweet the article</li>
<li>Comment on relevant blog entries and link to the article</li>
<li>Write a short article for my own blogs that then link to the article</li>
<li>Link to the article from my Facebook page</li>
<li>Ask key clients to link to the article from their Facebook page or group </li>
<li>Use deep linking techniques to boost the SEO value of the article</li>
<li>Encourage people to link to the article as a valuable resource</li>
<li>Post in relevant forum discussions and link to the article from my signature</li>
<li>Submit ads to classified sites that link to the article</li>
<li>Submit links to the article to directories that allow deep linking</li>
<li>Email clients and subscribers and recommend the article</li>
<li>Hand out links to the article at networking meetings (free article about SEO)</li>
<li>Link to the article from all my websites</li>
<li>Ask key clients and individuals to link to the article from their sites and/or blogs</li>
<li>Offer to write guest articles for 3rd party blogs that then link to the article (or that serve the same purpose as the article and link to the landing page)</li>
<li>You'll find more <a href="http://asureimage.com/free-business-articles/66-ways-to-get-links-to-your-site/" target="_blank">link building ideas</a> here</li>
</ul>The point is, this approach uses a 3rd party article community to obtain free traffic. And then attempts to generate additional traffic.<br />
<br />
The article acts as a filter, ensuring that I send highly targeted and motivated prospects to a landing page designed specifically to receive them. I don't simply link to the landing page, I make an offer designed to appeal to the target market.<br />
<br />
This is one way that professional web marketers generate free targeted traffic to a web site. And it's highly effective.<br />
<br />
In part 13 we'll look at how to use SEO to generate targeted traffic within the Web Marketing Process.<br />
<br />
<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/Nbiqc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Subscribe to this Blog with Feedburner<br />
Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email" /></p><input type="hidden" value="blogspot/Nbiqc" name="uri" /><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p><a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">Get a FeedBurner Account</a></p></form>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-33957102949312067052010-07-09T16:34:00.006+01:002010-07-09T17:19:02.164+01:00@#*%^* NatWest! More spleen venting of a humourous nature...I have the great misfortune to have arranged my business banking with NatWest's <i>Direct Business Banking team</i>. Unfortunately for me, I made a single mistake on the original application form and descended into a special kind of Hell unseen since the great plague of 1348.<br />
<br />
If you're familiar with the Old Testament, having your business banking with NatWest <i>Direct Business Banking</i> is a bit like waking up one day and finding out you're Job. Bugger. Except that unlike Job, there's no reward waiting for me if I ever manage to crawl out of the misery they continue to subject me to. Double bugger.<br />
<br />
All that will happen is I end up remaining a customer of NatWest <i>Direct Business Banking</i>. Triple bugger.<br />
<br />
Anyway, when I last <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/06/is-it-6-or-is-it-b.html">wrote of my ordeal</a> I had visited the Kingsbury branch of NatWest and submitted a form designed to change the signing authority on my account. The current need for 2 signatures (my error) is the source of all my banking woes, and I needed to have this changed as soon as it was discovered. That was almost 2 months ago.<br />
<br />
I waited to hear that all was well and that we could proceed with the next step (activating my online banking). I waited in vain. NatWest managed to lose that form, but said they'd search for it. Another 2 weeks slipped by... <br />
<br />
...and then I received a call from NatWest to apologise profusely for losing my form. On the one hand, they actually called me this time. On the other hand, they lost my form and spent an entire month fucking around.<br />
<br />
They can't find the damn thing, and I am now forced to submit the exact same form in the exact same way and hope for a different result.<br />
<blockquote>As an aside, I have come up with a theoretical model that explains why it takes NatWest <i>Direct Business Banking</i> so long do anything. How is it that it can take weeks to simply change an address? After much thought I have the answer!<br />
<br />
NatWest <i>Direct Business Banking</i> is a vast bureaucracy, staggering under the weight of huge amounts of paper bound up in gigantic bundles of red tape. The mass of this organisation is so large, the resulting gravity well actually slows time. It's employees enter their workplace, and do actually turn around forms in mere minutes relative to their own position in spacetime. Unfortunately for those us outside the gravity well of NatWest <i>Direct Business Banking</i>, time flows much faster (i.e. at its normal rate). 10 minutes inside the building is equal to several weeks outside. This is the only explanation I can come up with to explain their ineptitude. </blockquote><br />
Now the person handling my case (for it is now an official case) had told me to take a form into a NatWest branch and have them send it to the <i>Direct Business Banking</i> unit. But this person was well aware of the inherent flaw in this plan, and suggested we do something cunning.<br />
<br />
I was not just to take the form into a branch and hand it over. This time I was to ask that they fax it to her so she would have a copy in case it goes missing again.<br />
<br />
This time around I chose the Swiss Cottage Branch of NatWest because it looks like the bureaudroid that accepted my form at the Kingsbury branch never actually sent it on. I wasn't certain I would remain calm if I encountered her again.<br />
<br />
The person I talked to at NatWest Swiss Cottage was a <i>lot</i> more helpful than one at Kingsbury had been. He had encountered other people suffering at the hands of NatWest's <i>Direct Business Banking</i> unit. He understood that it is a fate worse than a fate worse than death, and did what I asked. And apologised on behalf of NatWest.<br />
<br />
I eventually recovered from the shock, hopped on the tube, and went home.<br />
<br />
So I've submitted yet another form to this horrendous corporation in the vein hope they will do something right for a change. You never know. The form might <i>actually </i>be processed. It might <i>actually</i> happen in less than 10 days. Pigs might <i>actually</i> fly. Politicians might <i>actually</i> restrain themselves when it comes to their expenses. <br />
<br />
Or perhaps not.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-85041221911643248552010-07-07T11:03:00.002+01:002010-07-13T09:13:24.067+01:00Deep Linking TechniquesA 'deep link' is a link to a page on a website that isn't the homepage. Naturally it must obey all the other conventions of SEO link building...<br />
<ul><li>It must be from an external site (from them to you)</li>
<li>It must be a one-way link (i.e. no reciprocal link)</li>
<li>It must convey SEO benefit (i.e. a dofollow link from a credible source)</li>
</ul><br />
A lot of SEO link building makes use of web directories. This is a quick and simple way of getting a link back to a web site.<br />
<br />
While a web directory is the SEO Professionals' 'old faithful', it's of little help when it comes to deep linking. Most web directories will only accept links to a site's homepage. So what do you do when you need to raise the importance of some other page on your site? Here are several options...<br />
<ul><li>Write an article and get it published on a dedicated article site. Link to the page on your site from the author profile</li>
<li>Write a blog article and use it link to the webpage</li>
<li>Create a Squidoo lens and generate deep links from that </li>
<li>Find an appropriate 3rd party blog article, make a comment, and link back to the webpage</li>
<li>Add the link to a forum signature and start posting</li>
<li>Create link bait and link on from that</li>
<li>Recreate the page destined for deep linking as link bait in and of itself</li>
<li>Try one or more of these specialist <a href="http://www.web-directories.ws/General/Deep_Links/" rel="nofollow">deep link directories</a></li>
</ul>Of course, these techniques tend to involve either time or money. For that reason, you may be better off paying a professional to generate links for you (i.e. save yourself lots of time).<br />
<br />
I'm currently working on a this <a href="http://swsmiles.co.uk/root-canal-treatment.php">root canal treatment</a> page for a dentist in Battersea. As you can see, it's unlikely this page will pick up links on its own. And it's not the sort of page that can be rewritten as link bait either (within the context of this particular site).<br />
<br />
As a result, link building must be done the hard way!<br />
<br />
<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/Nbiqc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Subscribe to this Blog with Feedburner<br />
Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email" /></p><input type="hidden" value="blogspot/Nbiqc" name="uri" /><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p><a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">Get a FeedBurner Account</a></p></form>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-16872729424983966812010-06-22T14:51:00.011+01:002010-06-22T19:15:38.102+01:00Is it a '6' or is it a 'b'?UPDATE: My address has been corrected, and NatWest did contact me today as they said they would. They are looking for the missing form, and have promised to call me tomorrow to update me on the search. Thank you for that call today. The person I spoke to went a long long way to restoring my faith in the organisation.<br />
<br />
NOTE: What follows was written before the above call, while I was seething with rage at the situation in which I found myself and the seeming impossibility of getting out of it.<br />
<br />
When <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/06/very-bad-customer-service-natwest.html">NatWest Direct Business Banking</a> originally entered my business address into their system, they left out an important part. I needed to get it changed, and that meant filling out a form and mailing it to them. This is apparently the only possible way to change an address with NatWest Direct Business Banking.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I submitted the form via a branch having now learned the folly of not creating a paper trail.<br />
<br />
Two weeks went by as I moved office, changed my address with every other company I deal with (all trouble free), and settled in to the new place. I looked at my to do list, and decided I better follow up NatWest just to make sure all was well.<br />
<br />
It wasn't. <br />
<br />
Turns out some poor sole was unable to decide whether the '6' in '122/176' was a '6' or a 'b'. As it was impossible to tell, NatWest Direct Business Banking took the idiotic decision to do nothing at all.<br />
<br />
They didn't phone and ask. They didn't write to me. They didn't email me. They didn't do <i>anything</i>.<br />
<br />
On what planet is it acceptable to simply discard a form and go back to sleep? How is this 'helpful banking?' Have I somehow wandered into an alternative universe where this is acceptable business behaviour?<br />
<br />
It might surprise you to know that after 3 months of being trapped in a sort of business banking hell, I wasn't very pleased. But it gets worse. The other form I sent in at the same time, which will correct a mistake on my part and is the underlying cause of the trouble I'm having with them, did not arrive at the Business Banking Unit. It has been lost.<br />
<br />
Their solution to my woe? I should submit another form.<br />
<br />
Ha ha ha ha ha! Good one NatWest.<br />
<br />
You've already taught me that submitting forms to you is nothing more than a game to amuse your staff. I'm tired of jumping through the flaming hoops you place in my path, merely for the amusement of your staff.<i> </i><br />
<br />
<i>NOTE: Overnight they changed their mind, and have now amended my address without requiring that I send them another form. Hooray!</i><br />
<br />
I've made yet another complaint, and have been promised that somebody will call me back today. I have the local ambulance service on standby just in case this actually happens, because I will need somebody to restart my heart if it does.<br />
<br />
<i>NOTE: They did call. A heart massage wasn't required.</i><br />
<br />
What I want from you, <a href="http://www.natwest.com/business/services/banking-your-way/direct-banking.ashx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NatWest Direct Business Banking</a>, is a call from somebody with the power, authority and IQ to fix this damn mess you've created for me.<br />
<br />
Stop telling me to send you things that you'll lose, and put things right. Immediately. Today. Over the phone. You have my number. Use it.<br />
<br />
<i>NOTE: OK, so I didn't get it sorted. I'm still in that strange circle of hell where it's not possible for me to get Internet banking, which is essential to the operation of my business. My finger's are crossed. I can get Internet banking once they find that damn form. I will be most interested to see how quickly I get it, given the length of time they've had my application.</i>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-85765266702684501242010-06-21T19:53:00.002+01:002010-06-21T19:55:02.292+01:00Client Service Issues In Existence for 11 Years and Still Not Fixed!In my previous article I outlined some of the frustrations I've experienced at the hand of <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/06/very-bad-customer-service-natwest.html">NatWest Direct Business Banking</a>, and their apparent inability to successful do something as simple as receive a form through the mail - which is key to their operation.<br />
<br />
It looks like I'm not the only person on the receiving end of a frustrating problem. The issues that infest NatWest's pathetic Direct Business Banking arm have been in existence from the get go. Take a look at an article published in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/direct-banking-in-the-firing-line-740455.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">The Independent</a> waaaaaaay back in 1999.<br />
<br />
Perhaps one day, the person responsible for the disgrace that is NatWest's Direct Business Banking might stop counting his/her bonus money, and instead take a look at the mess s/he has made.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-2482061500789164492010-06-21T10:34:00.002+01:002010-06-21T10:51:42.983+01:00Very bad customer Service - NatWest Direct Business BankingWhen I arrived in the UK in 2003 <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-0" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> Swiss Cottage were the first bank to help me get set up with banking here. 7 years later and I needed business banking for the company I'd just incorporated. Naturally I turned to <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-1" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer>.<br />
<br />
I called the business banking number, and instead of a branch I was put in touch with <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-2" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer>'s Direct Business Banking. I was assured we could sort everything out over the phone, so off I went.<br />
<br />
3 months later, and I now wish I'd never heard of <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-3" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> Direct Business Banking. If you're looking for business banking, and considering <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-4" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> Direct Business Banking, get yourself a coffee and read the following.<br />
<br />
My view is that <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-5" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> Direct Business Banking is not fit for its intended purpose. It starts with the encyclopaedic application forms (plural), and complete absence of help to fill them out. Good luck with that. You'll need it.<br />
<br />
If a single mistake is made, the trouble starts as you take on the Direct Business Banking 'Relationship' team and attempt to get things changed. They'll promise to call back, and won't. You'll send in forms, and they'll be lost.<br />
<br />
So far, nothing I've tried to resolve has worked. Not a single thing. I can't change my address. I can't get Internet banking up and running. And at the heart of all the problems I've had, I've been unable to have the signing authority changed from joint to either/or.<br />
<br />
I am stuck in an ongoing and apparently eternal cycle. For example...<br />
<ul><li>I took 2 forms into the Kenton Branch of <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-6" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer>, having lost all faith in mailing forms to them. Yes, a branch - completely negating the purpose and supposed benefits of Direct Business Banking</li>
<li>I had both forms checked by an 'expert', and the branch then sent them to NatWest Direct Business Banking</li>
<li>One of the forms arrived, but was not actioned because (or so claim the <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-7" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> Direct Business Banking 'Relationship' team) they couldn't tell if I had written a 6 or a B. Rather than tell me, they did absolutely nothing at all. This is not the <i>first</i> time they've encountered a problem and failed to advise me. As far as I can tell, this is what they always do. It's certainly what they've always done to me</li>
<li>I happened to call 2 weeks later to see what had happened. I discovered no change of address was made, and that the second form had not arrived.</li>
</ul>I do not believe the second form didn't arrive. It was sent via Kenton Branch, and one of the 2 forms did arrive as admitted by <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-8" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer>. For it not to have arrived, the Kenton branch would have had to split the 2 forms and sent them separately.<br />
<br />
I think they have lost the second form, which happens to be the most important of the 2. It is the form that will unlock the cause of the problem I am having with NatWest and it's completely hopeless Direct Business Banking unit.<br />
<br />
I have absolutely no faith in either the honesty or competence of <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-9" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer>'s Direct Business Banking 'Relationship' team.<br />
<br />
It beggars belief that 3 months have gone by, and I have been unable to resolve 3 simple issues. In all cases, I have done exactly what <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-10" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> asked me to do. In all cases, they have completely failed to...<br />
<ul><li>Advise me when something hasn't been supplied in the correct manner</li>
<li>Do anything at all to actually help me</li>
</ul>From a customer service perspective, here is where <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-11" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> Direct Business Banking has failed...<br />
<ul><li>There is no specific place or person who is authorised to handle problems of this nature, and make sure they are resolved quickly and to the customer's satisfaction. If there were, I am certain this would have been sorted out 5 weeks ago</li>
<li>There seems to be no bring up system that tracks expected documents, and if it doesn't arrive generates an outbound call to the client to see where it is. This would have immediately ensured the missing form was investigated last week rather than this</li>
<li>The members of the Direct Business Banking Relationship team seem to have no authority to do anything but make yet another request to submit yet another form to make up for the previous form(s) they lost</li>
<li>There is apparently no ability for the underlying system to flag an ongoing issue such as mine, and bring it to the attention of a higher authority</li>
</ul><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-13" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer> are a large organisation. Mistakes will happen, and there will be people who lack the authority to resolve them. In such situations, what matters is not that a mistake was made. What matters is that the customer feels his/her problem was dealt with competently.<br />
<br />
I have received one written apology from NatWest. I am not interested in an apology.<br />
<br />
An apology is completely and utterly worthless. It is a waste of paper. It costs a few pounds to send a letter.<br />
<br />
The <i>only</i> thing I want is to have my business banking sorted out. I want either/or signing authority. I want my address corrected. And I want online banking to work.<br />
<br />
That's all. But <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-14" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">NatWest</layer>'s only solution is to ask me to keep doing the same thing over and over again in the hope they will eventually stop losing the forms I sent them.<br />
<br />
Bah!Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-80640044553622776942010-06-01T13:49:00.000+01:002010-06-01T13:49:53.341+01:00Online Lead Generation - Visitor ConversionLead generation involves 2 key activities...<br />
<ol><li>Traffic generation</li>
<li>Visitor conversion</li>
</ol>Of these, visitor conversion is the hardest task to get right. A new article on ASureImage looks at 30 different methods to <a href="http://asureimage.com/free-business-articles/30-ways-to-convert-visitors-into-leads/" target="_blank">convert visitors to leads</a>. More importantly, it explains what a genuine lead is and why tricking people into handing over their contact data isn't necessary.<br />
<br />
This article is highly recommended to everybody who wants to find out how to generate leads on their own site.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-28722430017723990802010-05-16T13:05:00.066+01:002010-07-13T09:13:58.942+01:00Getting Visitors - The Web Marketing Process Part 11<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06DURFZoagA9cAAwRFTw9uvUFxroH2aHP_4AnvMs3WGeXXhuGTl-NXhTZcph3lqYHUJTpx7B8x_YdJDfoxtVTYx7q_NgGmqGVmXz8ZmdzdAx8-lOntbQpEFmsuNVCJ1UC-gBbj56DXOIE/s320/wmp-visitors.jpg" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /><br />
This article is part 11 of a series. You'll find <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html">part one here</a>. And <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-define-your-target-market.html">part 10 here</a>.<br />
<br />
Get live updates as each new part is released: <a href="http://twitter.com/seo2leads" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Follow on Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
There are many different ways to get visitors to your website, including...<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://agazze.com/">SEO</a> (search engine optimisation)</li>
<li>Social Media</li>
<li>Social bookmarketing</li>
<li>Article marketing</li>
<li>SEM (search engine marketing)</li>
<li>Online advertising</li>
<li>Offline advertising</li>
<li>Guerilla marketing</li>
<li>Viral marketing </li>
<li>Forums</li>
<li>Alliance and affiliate marketing</li>
<li>3rd party content (e.g. Squidoo)</li>
<li>Blogging</li>
<li>Freebies and giveaways </li>
<li>External web content</li>
<li>Business networking</li>
<li>Email marketing</li>
<li>Newsletters (on and offline)</li>
<li>Promotion to existing clients</li>
<li>Online press releases</li>
<li>Regular press releases</li>
<li>Surveys</li>
<li>Ebooks and reports</li>
<li>Download</li>
<li>Link swap schemes</li>
<li>Directories</li>
<li>Classifieds </li>
<li>Competitions</li>
<li>Podcasts</li>
<li>Slideshows (e.g. Slideshare)</li>
<li>Video marketing (e.g. YouTube)</li>
<li>Link bait</li>
</ul>And many more than this. For example, take a look at <a href="http://asureimage.com/free-business-articles/66-ways-to-get-links-to-your-site/" target="_blank">66 ways to get links</a> and visitors to your site.<br />
<br />
You'll look at a lots of different ways to get traffic in coming articles, but none of these methods is as important as knowing...<br />
<ul><li>The type of visitor that <i>most</i> benefits you</li>
<li>The specific thing that will make that type of person <i>want</i> to visit your site</li>
</ul>The key to getting the right people to visit your site actually lies in how well you understand your target market, and how good your targeting is. We looked at <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/01/defining-new-target-market-part-8.html" target="_blank">target marketing</a> in part 8. Now it's time to wade in get our hands dirty!<br />
<br />
There's no point getting people to visit your site if they...<br />
<ul><li>Don't want/need your product or service</li>
<li>Can't afford your product or service</li>
<li>Can't physically buy/use your product or service </li>
</ul>Any traffic scheme that simply sends you random visitors is essentially useless. You may as well stop people at random on the street and ask each one to give you £1,000.<br />
<br />
The most obvious purpose of targeting is to understand who wants or needs your service, can afford it, and is in a position to actually buy it from you (e.g. in the right geographic area).<br />
<br />
It's essential that you understood who this person is, where s/he can be found, and what will persuade him/her to visit your site. You need to know this <i>before</i> you try to generate traffic to your site.<br />
<br />
In part 12 we'll take an in-depth look at how web marketing professionals identify the right people, and attract them to a website.<br />
<br />
<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/Nbiqc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Subscribe to this Blog with Feedburner<br />
Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email" /></p><input type="hidden" value="blogspot/Nbiqc" name="uri" /><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p><a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">Get a FeedBurner Account</a></p></form>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-16485177893028482182010-05-14T19:10:00.005+01:002010-05-14T19:14:18.567+01:00Top of Google and Still no Sales?It's possible to be top of Google for a lucrative keyword phrase, get plenty of traffic to your site, and still fail to make money. The plain fact is - SEO alone isn't enough.<br />
<br />
In fact, I'll go so far as to say SEO is worthless without <a href="http://asureimage.com/" target="_blank">lead generation</a>.<br />
<br />
Many search engine optimisation 'experts' have a background in web development. In other words, their expertise lies in computer programming.<br />
<br />
This type of technical expertise might be fine when it comes to manipulating content so it indexes well in search engines. But it doesn't help you with the following crucial areas...<br />
<ul><li>Attracting the right type of visitor</li>
<li>Engaging that visitor on arrival</li>
<li>Turning interest into an actual business enquiry (i.e. generating the lead)</li>
</ul>The key to turning a profit on your investment in SEO lies in a deep understanding of the overall <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html" target="_blank">web marketing process</a>. An SEO consultant that lacks a background in the skills of direct marketing and response advertising will ultimately fail to generate leads - let alone sales.<br />
<br />
If you find yourself at the top of Google, but lacking in sales from your website, it's time to take a long hard look at...<br />
<ul><li>What you're ranking for</li>
<li>The page your visitors arrive on</li>
<li>What happens next</li>
</ul>An experienced web marketing expert will know immediately where the problem lies and how to fix it.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-45321283261594089332010-04-27T15:53:00.002+01:002010-07-13T09:14:13.519+01:00How to define your target market (part 10 of The Web Marketing Process)<img alt="The Web Marketing Process | Objectives" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AuEq2F-n0K2xNKT6eO0VlvbTVBPl-jQ3fSumGYleSln98Vrk3Or-nOP20xaBjLs505meZtgQwUYhvNcvoqh23UWkM4OfzCEkAjLw-Wg5tUciGOUt0Okx-ZbNVTjROoG6WRsalvwdbr_5/s320/wmp-objectives.jpg" style="border: medium none; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 144px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 298px;" title="The Web Marketing Process | Objectives" /><br />
This article is part 10 of a series. You'll find <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html">part one here</a>. And <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/02/market-research-inside-web-marketing.html">part 9 here</a>.<br />
<br />
Get live updates as each new part is released: <a href="http://twitter.com/seo2leads" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Follow on Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
Take a look at the <a href="http://webmarketingevent.com/tools/campaign-plan-1.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Campaign Planner</a> introduced in <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/12/objectives-web-marketing-process-part-5.html" target="_blank">part 5</a> of this series. You'll see there's a section where you can define each of your target markets.<br />
<br />
The purpose of this section is to make notes about each target group. Let's go through the sheet...<br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Name:</b><br />
Give each target market a unique name. Ideally, this name will summarize the main points</li>
<li><b>Description:</b><br />
Use bullet points to outline the main features of this market. At this point, you may have more questions than answers. If so, write down your questions and research the answers later</li>
<li><b>Where found online:</b><br />
Which sites are likely to already attract your target market. Can you advertise on those sites? If you have questions rather than answers, write down your questions</li>
<li><b>Motivation to respond:</b><br />
What do you think will motivate your target market to respond to a marketing offer? Why will it have that effect? If you can't answer these 2 questions, it's a sign you need to do more research into your target market. If it's an existing target market, it's a sign you need to start exploring this issue with your clients and/or with your sales team</li>
<li><b>Offer ideas:</b><br />
What can you offer your target market? As with the above question, this is very important. It's worth taking your time with these last 2 questions, and revisiting them. Ask other people what they think of your answers. Ask your clients what they think. Ask what they'd like you to provide</li>
</ul>You may come up with a number of different ideas. It's perfectly acceptable to try them all, testing each one against the others.<br />
<br />
If you're getting the idea that you never really stop testing in lead generation, you're right. Your ratios might improve, but anything can come along and change all that.<br />
<br />
The ability to quickly detect a problem, such as falling conversion ratios, is a competitive advantage. The ability to quickly test new ideas in a changing market is also a competitive advantage.<br />
<br />
And both these advantages are possible only if you're tracking your results. In web marketing, doing the maths is essential.<br />
<br />
<b>The Web Marketing Process Step 1 Summary: <i>Objectives</i></b><br />
<br />
You've now completed step one of the Web Marketing Process. You've looked at how to set objectives for an online marketing campaign.<br />
<br />
You've looked at how keeping track of our objectives can save both time and money.<br />
<br />
You've looked at the role of market research as a source of information about the size of target market, and as a way to find out more about the people in that group.<br />
<br />
You'll come back to this as you move through steps 2-5. And in particular, you'll look at how an analysis of our campaign results can be fed back into the objectives you set for your next campaign.<br />
<br />
The next task is to take a look at step 2 – sourcing visitors for a campaign.<br />
<br />
<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/Nbiqc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Subscribe to this Blog with Feedburner<br />
Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email" /></p><input type="hidden" value="blogspot/Nbiqc" name="uri" /><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p><a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">Get a FeedBurner Account</a></p></form>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-1818989034240371652010-04-22T18:31:00.002+01:002010-04-22T18:31:54.758+01:00Help - Google thinks my business is in Bolton!What do you do when your business is based in London, your product can only be sold to Londoners, and Google only displays your site to people living in Bolton? It's a tricky one, but <a href="http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/brent/blog/help-google-thinks-my-business-is-in-bolton/article019662.htm">help is at hand</a>.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-91173172107898570992010-02-28T22:28:00.002+00:002010-02-28T22:31:12.169+00:00Strategic SuicideThere is an approach to web marketing which goes like this...<br />
<ol><li>Create some content with utility value</li>
<li>Give it away for free</li>
<li>Attempt to convert these freeloaders into paying customers</li>
</ol>On the face of it this marketing tactic seems like a good idea. A web marketer uses the freebie as bait, attracting hoards of people to his/her site and collecting their contact details. It's a well know and widely used approach.<br />
<br />
My own view is that this approach to web marketing is flawed. Here's why...<br />
<ul><li>It builds a list full of people seeking freebies (i.e. cheapskates)</li>
<li>The resulting list may be targeted in the sense that it contains people interested in the product category the freebie relates to. But did you really mean to build a list full of cheapskates?</li>
<li>Everybody is using this strategy. And 99% of the people using it are giving away low-quality rubbish. Anybody with any sense now knows that giveaway reports and services are less valuable than preserving their email privacy. The people you want in your list probably won't sign up</li>
<li>The low bar set by the people using this strategy mean the lure of free no longer works</li>
</ul>Put another way, I think this approach to web marketing is ultimately a form of strategic suicide. A sale is made when somebody wants what you have to offer at the price you're offering it for, and trusts that you'll deliver it.<br />
<br />
Without that trust, the sale won't occur. It's something you need to earn, or borrow from a trusted third party (e.g. a referral from a mutual and trusted friend).Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-34020449708541765312010-02-21T12:07:00.006+00:002010-07-13T09:14:51.870+01:00Market Research inside The Web Marketing Process (part 9)<img alt="The Web Marketing Process | Objectives" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AuEq2F-n0K2xNKT6eO0VlvbTVBPl-jQ3fSumGYleSln98Vrk3Or-nOP20xaBjLs505meZtgQwUYhvNcvoqh23UWkM4OfzCEkAjLw-Wg5tUciGOUt0Okx-ZbNVTjROoG6WRsalvwdbr_5/s320/wmp-objectives.jpg" style="border: medium none; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 144px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 298px;" title="The Web Marketing Process | Objectives" /><br />
This article is part 9 of a series. You'll find <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html">part one here</a>. And <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2010/01/defining-new-target-market-part-8.html">part 8 here</a>.<br />
<br />
Get live updates as each new part is released: <a href="http://twitter.com/seo2leads" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Follow on Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
Market research has a number of uses. Sometimes it can hint at new markets to sell an existing product to. Or spawn entirely new product ideas. It may even give clues about what motivates people to buy a particular product.<br />
<br />
I find it's especially useful when combined with data from previous campaigns. For example...<br />
<ul><li>Let's say market research suggests that product X is likely to appeal to Facebook users</li>
<li>And we have past results from Facebook advertising that show we normally generate one sale per £5 invested</li>
<li>Our product delivers a net profit (excluding campaign costs) of £10 per sale</li>
<li>This suggests we'll make a profit of £5 per sale if we invest in Facebook</li>
<li>Put another way, our return on investment is likely to be 100%</li>
</ul>In this case, market research has told us Facebook users are likely to want to buy our product. And data from past campaigns on Facebook suggest we're likely to double our money.<br />
<br />
That's useful to know, isn't it? But what if we don't have past experience to fall back on? This is where trial campaigns come in useful. We can...<br />
<ol><li>Use free methods of attracting Facebook users. See <a href="http://webmarketingevent.com/resources/fbm.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this web page</a> for ideas on how to do that</li>
<li>Allocate a small test budget and run standard Facebook ads</li>
<li>Use a mix of free and paid advertising</li>
</ol>We then run various trial campaigns until such time as we have enough data to be confident in the results we've achieved.<br />
<br />
If we discover the resulting ROI isn't good enough to justify further investment, we can do one of two things...<br />
<ol><li>Abandon Facebook as a marketing method</li>
<li>Examine our campaign ratios, and look for places to improve</li>
</ol>I prefer the second approach. In my experience, if a marketing campaign is failing it's usually not the fault of the media.<br />
<br />
If I'm not making money from a Facebook ad, it's probably not the fault of Facebook or it's clients. It's much more likely it will be one of the following...<br />
<ul><li>Maybe my offer doesn't appeal to Facebook users?</li>
<li>Or my offer isn't getting in front of the right Facebook users?</li>
<li>Is my landing page converting enough visitors into leads?</li>
<li>Perhaps my sales approach isn't converting enough leads into clients?</li>
</ul>Assuming we're tracking the campaign properly, the data will show where the problem lies. For example, let's say the data from our campaign delivered the following results...<br />
<ul><li>We paid £500 to advertise on Facebook</li>
<li>We got 2,500 people to click through to our landing page</li>
<li>10 of those people became leads</li>
<li>And 4 of these leads became clients</li>
</ul>We got enough visitors to suggest the problem isn't with Facebook, or with the teaser ad we ran. Most of us would be happy paying 20 pence per click.<br />
<br />
Likewise, most of us would be happy to convert 40% of leads into sales.<br />
<br />
The problem is clearly with the conversion of visitors into leads. We're only getting one lead per 250 visitors.<br />
<br />
We're going to need to look at the landing page, and isolate the problem.<br />
<br />
It might not be clear what the problem is, and one way of finding out is to test different landing pages against each other.<br />
<br />
The web makes it possible to rotate different landing pages. The first visitor will see version A, the 2nd will see version B, the 3rd will see version A, and so on.<br />
<br />
Over time, one of the versions will deliver better results than the rest. Perhaps even significantly better.<br />
<br />
<b>Useful Market Research Resources On the Web</b><br />
<br />
The web is full of useful research, data, resources and tools you can use to obtain valuable information about your market. Here are some useful sites to get your started...<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.statistics.gov.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">UK National Statistics</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.mediapost.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Media Post</a>: Click the research button</li>
<li>International <a href="http://www.internetworldstats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Internet statistics</a></li>
<li>Internet market <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">research and statistics</a></li>
<li>Links to resources <a href="http://www.umassd.edu/marketresearch/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">about online market research</a></li>
<li>Information about Internet <a href="http://www.allaboutmarketresearch.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">market research</a></li>
<li>How to <a href="http://webmarketingevent.com/resources/dyomr.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">do your own</a> market research</li>
<li><a href="http://www.marketresearchworld.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Free market research</a> resources</li>
<li>DIY <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">online survey</a> tool</li>
</ul>In part 10 you'll look at how to define your online target market inside the Web Marketing Process.<br />
<br />
<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/Nbiqc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Subscribe to this Blog with Feedburner<br />
Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email" /></p><input type="hidden" value="blogspot/Nbiqc" name="uri" /><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p><a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">Get a FeedBurner Account</a></p></form>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-44923404296548562912010-02-05T12:28:00.001+00:002010-02-05T12:30:17.851+00:00Does Flash have a future?I've been thinking about the future of Adobe Flash recently, and whether or not there is one.<br />
<br />
This train of thought began when I got my iPhone, and started using it to surf the web (i.e. when I had no other way to get online).<br />
<br />
I first realised that Safari on the iPhone doesn't have a Flash player when I tried to view a Flash site. In 50 days of use, this was the first time I'd been stopped by the lack of Flash.<br />
<br />
The question is, does this lack of Flash actually matter? And to my surprise, I found myself answering 'No, it doesn't'. I can't think of a single time when the use of Flash has been critical to any of my clients.<br />
<br />
I do have clients with Flash components in their site. And from time-to-time, it's been necessary to replace Flash sites with HTML pages for SEO purposes. I don't dispute that Flash is better looking and more capable than DHTML. What I question is whether or not the superior ability of Flash is more important than having Google index a site correctly?<br />
<br />
I don't think so, and that's how I advise my clients. In theory, Google can index a Flash site. In reality, it can't index it properly (e.g. can't see individual pages). The plain fact is, I can't really work with a Flash site.<br />
<br />
Apple left Flash out of the iPhone, and I've discovered I don't miss it.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-56978400784164985772010-01-01T21:13:00.002+00:002010-07-13T09:15:06.764+01:00Defining a New Target Market: The Web Marketing Process (part 8)<img alt="The Web Marketing Process | Objectives" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AuEq2F-n0K2xNKT6eO0VlvbTVBPl-jQ3fSumGYleSln98Vrk3Or-nOP20xaBjLs505meZtgQwUYhvNcvoqh23UWkM4OfzCEkAjLw-Wg5tUciGOUt0Okx-ZbNVTjROoG6WRsalvwdbr_5/s320/wmp-objectives.jpg" style="border: medium none; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 144px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 298px;" title="The Web Marketing Process | Objectives" /><br />
This article is part 8 of a series. You'll find <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/11/web-marketing-process.html">part one here</a>. And <a href="http://lead-generation-expert.blogspot.com/2009/12/current-clients-can-help-define-target.html">part 7 here</a>.<br />
<br />
Get live updates as each new part is released: <a href="http://twitter.com/seo2leads" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Follow on Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
Lead generation can be used to expand into new markets. For example...<br />
<ul><li>You may discover your existing client base isn't easy to locate on the Internet, so you're forced to find a new market</li>
<li>Perhaps your business is looking to increase its revenue by marketing an existing product to a new audience</li>
<li>Your business may introduce a new product designed to appeal to a different audience, such as...</li>
<li style="margin-left:60px;">Younger people</li>
<li style="margin-left:60px;">Older people</li>
<li style="margin-left:60px;">A higher or lower socio-economic group</li>
<li style="margin-left:60px;">A different lifestyle</li>
<li style="margin-left:60px;">A different geographic area</li>
<li style="margin-left:60px;">Maybe even an International audience</li>
</ul><br />
Any time you expand into a new target market, it's essential that you understand what drives that market. This isn't necessarily a matter of understanding the demographic, socio or geographic make-up of the market.<br />
<br />
It's about understanding how to create an offer that appeals to the people in your target market.<br />
<br />
Lead generation requires that you overcome human inertia, and motivate a person to take the action you want (i.e. to respond to your offer).<br />
<br />
To do this, you need to know enough about your target market to understand what sort of offer they won't be able to resist.<br />
<br />
If your company has no experience with this new market, you're going to need to get it. This may involve market research. It can also involve a series of trial campaigns.<br />
<br />
In part 9 you'll look at the role and use of market research in the web marketing process.<br />
<br />
<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=blogspot/Nbiqc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Subscribe to this Blog with Feedburner<br />
Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email" /></p><input type="hidden" value="blogspot/Nbiqc" name="uri" /><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p><a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">Get a FeedBurner Account</a></p></form>Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308233174730005922.post-81733810607502392092009-12-28T19:13:00.002+00:002009-12-28T19:26:12.268+00:00If your site isn't generating leads check your offerMost of the people I see on a day-to-day basis are obsessed with traffic. All they want are more visitors to their site. I hardly ever meet somebody who understands that getting visitors to a website is the easy part.<br />
<br />
The real challenge is trying to turn a visitor into a <a href="http://asureimage.com/free-business-articles/what-is-a-lead/">lead</a>. A lead is a person who is ready to say 'yes'. The question is 'yes' to what?<br />
<br />
Consider what you're asking visitors to your website to say 'yes' to? In many cases, the copy on a website doesn't ask visitors to say 'yes' to anything. This happens when the copy on a site...<br />
<ul><li>Talks about products and services</li>
<li>Talks about the company and how great it is</li>
<li>Talks about features and benefits</li>
</ul>What most web copy doesn't do is make the visitor an offer. Take a look at the following example...<br />
<blockquote>Since 2000 our entertainers have performed at hundreds of wedding receptions all over the UK, Europe and the world. We've performed at...some of the most wonderful wedding locations and venues around the globe, ranging from...fairytale castles to grand reception rooms...<br />
</blockquote>This copy invests several paragraphs in making absolutely sure nobody can miss the fact the company has performed all over the world, and in some of the best venues. It does this in paragraph 2 of the site's home page (the wrong place to establish credibility with a potential client).<br />
<br />
At no point does the copy on this web page make the visitor an offer. It simply invites the visitor to click a link and fill out a contact form. That alone makes it better than 80% of business sites out there.<br />
<br />
But <i>what</i> specifically is the company offering to its target market? The product might be wedding reception entertainment, but is that what Brides or Parents set out to buy? Not in this company's well-heeled target market they don't.<br />
<br />
What's missing from the copy is the following...<br />
<ul><li>A true flavour of the product on offer. I've experienced their entertainment first hand, and know this copy falls far short of providing a even the smallest taste of what they have to offer a bride and groom</li>
<li>Some specific reason to call the company</li>
</ul>The true heart of any lead generation offer lies in this last point. It's the offer that gives a potential client a reason to contact your company.<br />
<br />
It's important to understand that an offer is not a sale. It only needs to get a potential client to phone you, or fill out a form and ask you to phone him/her back. Here's an example of how the above company might construct an offer to their target market...<br />
<blockquote>Which of the following would you like your guests to remember when they think about your wedding reception?<br />
<br />
[ ] How stunning you looked<br />
[ ] How tasty the food was<br />
[ ] How much fun they had<br />
[ ] The unexpected surprise you spring on them<br />
<br />
Wouldn't you love to catch your guests off-guard, and spring a massive surprise on them. One they'll love and talk about for years?<br />
<br />
That's what we do. Our wedding reception entertainment is unique, and designed specifically to catch your guests off guard (in a good way). Imagine the look on their faces when it happens. Every eye in the room will turn to you, to see how you're reacting.<br />
<br />
Even better, the very nature of our performance immediately has everybody engaged. Before long, your guests will find themselves laughing, clapping and cheering. Within minutes, everybody will find themselves up on their feet and dancing!<br />
<br />
The nature of the surprise, and the party that follows, is tailored to your specific requirements (i.e. it's built around you and your husband/wife). So we need to talk about it together, and create something perfect just for you.<br />
<br />
Simply fill out the form and tell us when you want us to phone back.<br />
</blockquote>The difference between the two is obvious, isn't it? In this case, the offer is somewhat subdued. It's appropriate for the target market (the product isn't designed for the budget conscious). Instead of talking about how great the company is, the copy focuses on how the product relates to the bride or groom (e.g. <i>Every eye in the room will turn to you to see how you're reacting</i>).<br />
<br />
The offer is very subtle in this case. It offers to provide the service of creating something unique with the bride and/or groom. To do that the visitor and the company have to talk.Wayne Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12425315423552852381noreply@blogger.com2